There are ongoing changes afoot on the grounds of San Francisco’s Presidio – the former military base which has been decommissioned for decades. The city has taken great care to integrate the area into the private sector over the years, retaining the original structures on the property, but slowly allowing those to be transitioned into a blend of residences, offices, commercial spaces, retail, and public use facilities. Possibly the highest profile and largest settler into the Presidio has been George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, best known for creating the Star Wars movies. Though toward the end of this year, there will be a new neighbor which will likely overshadow ILM in name recognition and visitor draw. What could possibly garner greater interest than Star Wars from the visitors passing through on their San Francisco tours and warrant that the tour buses divert their routes and tour monologues accordingly? The name of Walt Disney is a pretty good bet to attract a lot of attention from tourists and quickly rise to the top of visitors’ lists of San Francisco sightseeing attractions in the city. The first and only Walt Disney Family Museum is currently being constructed and will be completed and opened on the Presidio grounds in 2009.
Walt Disney was a risk taker and enjoyed thinking about anything new, pushing the envelope in whatever way that he could, on whatever he was focused upon, and the museum will highlight this history in Disney. Walt was keenly interested in technology and the future and that fascination will be shared with the public through exhibits that will themselves be quite technologically advanced. A large collection of artifacts and artwork will also be showcased for the public as well as significant archival footage of Walt speaking about himself, his family, his work, and his philosophies. The museum is taking great care to make not only your initial visit feel spontaneous and non-linear, but to design the museum in a way that repeat visitors will feel that the experience is new with each visit.
